Some big news coming out of the climate movement this week is that the Fridays for Future #PeopleNotProfit global climate strike is happening this Friday, March 25th.
Fridays for Future (started by Greta Thunberg and other school strikers) is hoping to get thousands of people on the streets around the world demanding that governments prioritize people over profits by taking action on climate change. This particular strike is also emphasizing the need for climate reparations in a world where “92% of global emissions, and the richest 1% of the world population are responsible for double the pollution produced by the poorest 50%,” as they report. At base, climate reparations entail these richest countries who have benefitted the most from burning fossil fuels paying the poorer countries to even out the score, especially as many of the poorer countries will feel and are feeling the brunt of the climate crisis before it arrives at the doorstep of the rich world. If you’re curious to learn more about what climate reparations are or what they could look like and how they could help address the climate crisis, check out “A Guide to Climate Reparations,” “The Case for Climate Reparations,” and “Never mind aid, never mind loans: what poor nations are owed is reparations.”
If you would like to participate in the global strike this Friday, you can find one happening close to you in a couple of different ways: You can use our Climate Action Explorer to find a local Fridays for Future protest, or it’s possible our Explorer hasn’t found all of the local protests yet (especially international ones) and you can use the Fridays for Future global map. And if you can’t find a local strike, but you really want to participate, you can start your own!
A couple of other noteworthy items this week include recent record-smashing heat waves at both the arctic and antarctic poles and for my fellow Minneapolitans, MN350 is holding a launch event for the campaign for a Green New Deal in Minneapolis called the People’s Climate and Equity plan on March 23rd. You can read more about it and sign up for the virtual event here.
Thanks for reading!